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In Defense of a Hate Criminal

Posted June 29, 2009 by Patrick Young, Esq.

Bay Buchanan, Pat’s sis, has written a stout defense against the “internet lynching” of her protege Marcus Epstein. Epstein served as the executive director of The American Cause, an outfit that she and Pat Buchanan run. He also ran Tom Tancredo’s PAC Team America and he was involved in the founding of Youth for Western Civilization.
So why is this young man being “lynched?” Here is what Bay has to say:
[T]wo years ago next month Marcus assaulted a black woman in Georgetown calling her the “n” word.
That blog and its hundred spinoffs then got to the juicy part of the story: Marcus Epstein is executive director of The American Cause, founded by Pat Buchanan and of Team America, founded by Tom Tancredo.
With respect to the incident I have been asked not to comment by Marcus’ attorney since the case is still pending. But putting the incident aside, the stories about Marcus were for the most part inaccurate and incomplete. Yet the left wing bloggers ran with this little factoid because the assailant worked for organizations associated with Pat Buchanan and Tom Tancredo.
What happened next was a modern day lynching by a faceless, angry, ignorant mob who reveled in the collective assault on their victim. They had wounded an adversary and drawn blood—without pausing to ask how so talented a young man could have found himself in such a mess.
Okay Bay. So Marcus Epstein assaults an African American woman on the streets whom he apparently picked out at random based soley on her race, calls her a “nigger”, and those of us who publicized this incident which the Buchanans and Tancredo had covered up are “faceless”, “angry”, and “ignorant”? I would like to point out that I and the others who wrote on this story signed our names to our reports. We were not “faceless”, unlike Marcus Epstein who tried to escape without disclosing his identity after his attack.
I am telling his story because Marcus Epstein deserves to have his good name returned to him.
I run both the organizations Marcus works for. I have known him since he came to me as a college grad and asked to be an intern for The American Cause. That was three years ago. I knew of the assault the day it happened and was with Marcus the following day.
Bay knew about the attack, but chose not to disclose it. Perhaps she did it to protect a young man she cared deeply about. Or perhaps she felt that identifying a leader in the fight against racial equality as a violent hater would discredit her two organizations. Or maybe she just didn’t think it was that big a deal.
I write this story not as an excuse for Marcus’ actions. There is no excuse. Marcus would be the first to admit this, and he has, many times.
He may have admitted it many times, but not to anyone outside the circle of conservative politics. Marcus Epstein has written a number of time in opposition to enhanced hate crime legislation, going so far as to refer to many hate crimes as a media hoax. Wouldn’t it have been appropriate in his bio attached to his articles to state that he was indicted for committing a hate crime? Good thing to know that the attack on hate crimes you are reading was written by a person with first hand knowledge. After all, we so rarely get the hate criminals point of view.
Marcus is half Jewish, and half Korean. He has a pronounced speech impediment, an exceptional mind, and a remarkable talent for writing.
So why is this in here Bay? Are you assuming that someone of mixed race ancestry is somehow off-limits to criticism? Or perhaps you are assuming that a person who is not “pure-blooded” cannot be held to the same high standard as everyone else?
But it was only after this incident that I came to fully appreciate his finest qualities.
Is one of those qulities the ability to cover-up a hate crime arrest?
In his final semester of college Marcus awoke in a deep depression. He had no idea what was happening to him. He only knew he couldn’t do his work. Some days he couldn’t get out of bed. That summer he began the long process of diagnosis—bouncing from one doctor to the next, from one medicine to the next. While his intelligence and ability were evident, Marcus had serious problems. He drank to excess and suffered periods of deep depression.
It sounds like Epstein’s problems began right around the time he met you. If you were aware of these problems, why didn’t you give him a role less stressful than running two controversial organizations? I mean, if you cared about him.
One Sunday early in 2007 Marcus called and asked if he could come to my home to talk. He was afraid of what he might do if he were alone another minute. He spoke for hours of being a failure and disappointment to family and friends. ...After exhausting himself emotionally he went to one of my spare bedrooms to sleep. He stayed several months and left only when he felt he was strong enough to be on his own again. But the demons were too great.
So he had to move in with you? Fewer demons at the Buchanan household, apparently. Wasn’t this the time he should have taken a leave of absence and headed out for a vacation at Betty Ford?
Early one Saturday evening, several months later, I received a call from a friend of Marcus’. “Marcus is in jail,” he told me. ...Marcus was arrested and released that same evening. Unable to face this new level of disgrace and failure, he went to his office where he drank to make the pain go away—for good. He was hospitalized for a week. His parents flew into town, conferred with Marcus, his doctors and his friends. It was clear. Marcus urgently needed professional help.
So all it took was an assault on a black woman for the ears to perk up?
As for the assault Marcus was charged and a plea bargain was worked out.
Wait, aren’t you guys against the sort of court that allows violent offenders to plead down? Oh, I forgot, this was a friend of yours.
In the rest of this sad story, Bay bemoans the fact that a little thing like a hate crime might interfere with Marcus Epstein’s dream of going to the University of Virginia Law School. Sorry Bay, top law schools take a dim view of people who get loaded and act out their racist fantasies. Perhaps he should try Regent Law School?